Call for Applications

The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) is dedicated to the topic of ‘Sustainable Governance’. MIASA’s three research foci are: sustainable environmental transformation, sustainable conflict management, and sustainable democracy.

In its first call for short-term fellowships MIASA welcomes applications from excellent researchers to join the interdisciplinary fellow group (IFG) “Parliaments and Democracy in Africa” from September to December 2019.

IFGs bring together a group of up to ten fellows for a duration of four months. The group comprises both senior and junior fellows including researchers from Germany, Africa and the rest of the world. The group centers around a research question which necessitates the input of experts from different academic fields and backgrounds. The group will work on the joint topic by, among other things, holding weekly colloquia and organizing a workshop. The group will be asked to produce a publication summing up the results of their work.

The IFG topic: African parliaments may not be inclusive and representative enough to provide for a sustainable democracy. Additionally, their relative political weight is often low, compared with the executive branch of government. The aim of this IFG is to investigate and compare the attributes and behaviour of parliaments in African countries with different democratic credentials.

All fellowships will be awarded to individuals of top academic quality with innovative and high quality research projects that fit with the IFG focus on parliaments and democracy in Africa, and will be selected through a highly competitive, strictly merit-based selection process.

The fellowships are held for four months from September to December 2019.

The successful applicants will become MIASA Fellows with all the corresponding rights and obligations for the requested funding period.

The fellow’s salary costs will be met by MIASA on the principle of “no loss, no gain” and paid directly to their home institution Furthermore, all fellows will receive a monthly allowance of 400 €. MIASA will provide accommodation and reimburse travel costs. MIASA will provide a research cost contribution of 150 € per fellow per month which is pooled on the fellow group level and will be spent as determined by the group convenor.

The Institute provides its fellows with modern office space and an up-to-date infrastructure. Fellows have full access to all library services.

Full-time presence at MIASA is expected of all fellows.

Eligibility

Eligible for application are junior and senior researchers from all countries after completion of their PhD in a relevant discipline of the Humanities or the Social Sciences. Applicants must propose a research project that matches the research focus of the IFG on “Parliaments and Democracy in Africa”.

The all-important selection criteria are the academic excellence of both the applicant and the project proposal. The fit of the proposed project with the IFG and the required experience and capability to conduct the research project will equally be taken into account. An international selection committee will be responsible for the selection of the fellows.

Information on the application and selection process (required documents, eligibility criteria, evaluation criteria, timeline and stages of the selection process) and the interdisciplinary fellow group is provided at: www.mias-africa.org.

It is recommended that researchers interested in this IFG should please contact the convenor Dr. Anja Osei (anja.osei [at] uni-konstanz.de) in advance to preparing an application.